Molten Chocolate- Raspberry Cupcakes (Gluten Free Optional)

This recipe came from the Everyday Food email subscription via Martha Stewart:

Every Day food with Sarah 

We choose it because she mentioned how little flour was in the recipe.  We are always looking for gluten free options when we are in Sweden, so this was perfect.  Zok used Chickpea flour for its consistency, but added in corn and bit of an all purpose gluten free until he got the texture he wanted, with the least amount of aftertaste.

Here is the recipe as Zok did it-

35 minutes from start to stomach

1/2 cup of white sugar

6 tablespoons (100 g) of room temperature butter (cut into small chunks)

4 eggs

1/2 cup of gluten free mixture (substituting for all-purpose flour)

Pinch of salt

100 g or 8 oz 70 % dark chocolate (semi-sweet)

2 fresh raspberries per cupcake

(our recipe made 10 cupcakes)

Confectioners/Powdered sugar to dust the top

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 205 c or about 400 f

Line your cupcake tin with paper cups

(melt your chocolate in a water bath)

In your mixer bowl, add your suger, then beat the butter chunks in a few at a time until fluffy

about 2 minutes (on med-high)

Then add in eggs one at a time (let each egg get beaten thoroughly before the next egg)

Turn mixer to low and add in the flour and salt

Beat in the chocolate just until combined

Fill each cupcake cup half way, add in your raspberries and then fill up the cups

Cook just until the tops are set and no longer shiny

(Zok cooked ours for 8 minutes)

Remember the middle is 'molten' so they seem a bit under cooked (you don't want to cook them as much as you would an ordinary cup cake)

Let them cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes (we ate ours only after 5 they were too tempting.)

Let's talk about the dual challenge of Gluten free and Vegan baking.

When making most meals, having enough options for your vegan guests is pretty easy.  Gluten free is a bit harder, especially if you are attached to bread as an actual part of the meal, but again if you are only cooking for others, having a rare gluten-free meal is no great sacrifice.

Of course if you feel that way, and you want to accommodate all your guests this gets a bit trickier. Recently Zok, decided he was confident enough to make not only a vegan/gluten free pie crust but also gluten free/vegan biscuits (Southern Style)

Tips: 

Firstly, if you are dealing with celiac disease- where a person knows their tolerance in parts per million, and you want to do your own blending, make sure to read the labels of your flour types; rice, corn, potato and so on.  

Blending

First Zok went the route of locally available boxed gluten-free flour mixes- such as here in Sweden: Mjölmix which was partly potato based.

Zok used this mix as he would a normal flour- but in the end the pie shell was still gooey and inedible.

He then moved on to the same style but different brands, and he added in his own corn flour- which worked well for pizza crust.

Then in Australia we found a few more options, an all purpose flour mix- and also the pastry mix you see here.  

This Orgran brand didn't need to be chilled- Zok has through trial and error, gotten a better feel of what the dough will and won't do, so this was made with vegan butter- and almond milk- first he used very cold water, and then the almond milk.  The dough was clumpy-but he pressed it together into a ball, cutting that into two, covered them in plastic wrap and let the  dough rest just long enough to prepare a surface with baking paper.

The baking paper is necessary as he skips the flouring step.  The consistency of the dough is hard to work with, so he doesn't like even using gluten free flour for dusting, as this addition, even slight could change the consistency.

Zok also adjusts the amount of baking powder always because he never buys self raising flour, and of course gluten free is not self raising. 

 

Chilling

However, normally for any gluten free baking an important step is chilling your dough until cold.

This makes the dough much harder to roll out, but negates the stickiness which is a bigger problem.  

Zok has found that gluten free baking involves a lower temperature for less time- to prevent the dough from drying out, for this pie he cooked at

160 c for 30 minutes

instead of 175 c for 35-40 minutes

Gluten free crust doesn't seem to give off the same signs of aroma or browning.

The next experiment will be potato flour for bread.

Bread of course is the hardest- depending on the type of bread you want to make - more risen than dense by example.

An easier route is any recipe that calls for less flour, such as corn meal or potato breads.  For the southern style biscuits, the vegan biscuits were pretty easy, the lack of buttermilk (substituting almond milk) did make them less fluffy- but my last important tip is that vegan free- and gluten free is best when you don't try to compare to normal baking, but to baking in its own category.

Also, your best audience is indeed someone who is vegan and or gluten-free.

 

Tupelo Honey Cafe: Almond Strawberry Tart (Vegan optional- Gluten Free)

This is easy to make, but make sure to factor in the time it needs to cool, and also set in the refrigerator.

Crust

2 cups sliced almonds

1/2 c. sugar

2 tbl. all-purpose flour (Zok used a gluten free mix)

1/2 tsp. vanilla extact

1/4 c. cold, unsalted butter-cubed

Filling

1/2 c. sugar

2 tbl. cornstarch

3 tbl. cold water

3 tbl. apple juice

1 1/2 pounds strawberries, washed, stemmed, and halved

Preheat oven to 375 F. To make the curst, place the almonds, sugar, flour, and vanilla in a food processer, process until the almonds are coarsely ground.

Add the butter cubes and process for a few seconds or until the mixture is clumped together.  Press the mixture into the bottom and edges of your pie dish to form a crust- let this all cool until the mixture firms up.

To make your filling, place the sugar and the cornstarch into a medium saucepan and stir to combine.

Then stir in your water and apple juice until the mixture is smooth.

Add the strawberries and  stir to coat them thoroughly-

Bring your mixture to a simmer and cook for about five minutes over medium - to high heat- keep stirring and watch for the mixture until it all thickens (jam - preserves style).

Immediately pour your filling onto your crust in your pie tin, and spread it out evenly.

Bake on the 375 degrees f. for about 25 minutes-or until the pie has 'set'.

This needs to cool for 1 hour, and then also be refrigerated for 2-3 hours before serving. 

*Notes
I thought it tasted really good, but on the healthy side of good- Zok did not like it, which is also a indicator of this.
As far as a gluten free- high protein dish goes, this one is great.
Also as you might notice Zok put in raspberries and blueberries as well.

 
 

Tupelo Honey Cafe: Southern Fried Chicken Breasts (Gluten Free Optional)

This recipe as I will write it up is for four people, with 4 (6 ounce/ 170s g.)

Zok however - always makes a bit extra- Here Zok has used the Gluten-free all purpose flour made by Red Mill.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups buttermilk

2 cups canola oil (here we use raps which is rapeseed oil, which is the base of most European vegetable oils)

2 cups all-purpose flour (or the gluten free flour of your choice)

3 tbl. cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Marinate the chicken in the buttermilk overnight in the refrigerator.  

Combine the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a large bowl and put aside-

  

 Then place the oil of your choice in your cast iron skillet (this really should be made in a cast-iron skillet- but if you don't have one you can use the pan of your choice)

Bring the oil to bubbling - over medium heat (or about 325 F).

You want to coat your chicken- as you are putting them into the pan

Drain the chicken and discard the buttermilk -

Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture until well coated.  Fry the chicken in the hot oil for 4 to 5 minutes per side, until golden brown.  

*Notes:
Zok did not weigh his chicken- so a few had to be cut thinner- this of course meant more of the coating per piece- which was an audience pleaser.
 There was a bit of left over coating - but perhaps better to have too much than too little, however, you can't really re-use the coating.
All meat eaters agreed that the soaking in the buttermilk made for really tender chicken.
Zok made a milk-mushroom gravy (vegetarian) which is what you see under the chicken breast.

Fresh Spring Rolls

Time to prepare- about 30 minutes

No cooking!

This is another recipe you can change to suit yourself.  We adjust for the amount of people, I can easily eat 5 by myself

But here is what we do:

Dried Rice paper wrappers

Dried rice vermicelli

Fresh Thai basil leaves (I admit we makes these during our Thai basil season, if you don't grow your own, you should, it is easy-peasy)

Coriander/Cilantro (optional) personally I hate it

Fresh mint leaves

Carrot cute into short thin strips

Cucumber cut into sticks

a bit of grated lime rind

If you think these are too 'dry' you can add a bit of sweet chili sauce,

we dip ours in just some soy sauce with a lot of grated ginger and we don't think you need anything else.

Many people used hard boiled egg cut into 1/6 ths.  But we quickly toast some thin tofu squares in butter, and then cut them like the carrots into matchsticks.

 Soak the rice vermicelli in a bowl you fill with boiling water for about ten minutes to soften them, and then drain them in a colander 

We use a class baking tray and fill it with warmish to almost hot water and then soak each rice paper wrapper as we use them, just immerse, soften and then spread it out on your work surface next to all your prepped ingredients and wrap them up

Basically you layout your wrapper, fill as desired (Zok puts in some chopped chillies - no surprise there...)

Then wrap them sort of burrito style, or just fold up the ends and roll them

Sort of tap down the filling as you do this

If the rice wrapper gets brittle just sprinkle it with a bit of water

That's it!

Healthy, quick and very tasty

 

 

 

San Choy Bau or Zok's version of Lettuce Cups

This dish is all about the prep.  Because really it is just a wok stir-fry.

The process is about 20 - 30 minutes prep and 10 minutes cooking.

Zok uses two woks, one for his pork version, and one for my tofu version.  This works out well because I also don't like as much spring onion, and Zok adds diced chillies to his.

1/4 cup (60 ml) oyster sauce (veg. style which we think is really a mushroom sauce)

2 tsp. soy sauce

1/4 (60 mil cooking sherry)

1 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 tbls. vegetable oil

1/4 sesame oil

2 crushed cloves of garlic

3 tsp. grated fresh ginger 

6 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal

100 g (about 3 oz) bamboo shoots, finally chopped (we use canned)

100 g (about 3 oz) water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped (we use canned)

Zok uses about 500 g (1 lb) of pork mince from the local butcher

and for me most of a block of tofu (we have used both soft and firm it's really a consistency choice)

Whole lettuce leaves (we use iceberg) rinsed and trimmed.

First your stir fry sauce, Combine:

oyster, soy, sherry and sugar in a small bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.

Then heat your wok(s) over high heat, and add your oils, roll your oil around to coat the wok.

Then add the garlic, ginger, and half of the spring onion, and stir-fry for about a minute

Then add your mince (or tofu) and cook about 4 minutes

Add your bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and the rest of your onion (and any chillies if you go that way), then pour in your stir-fry sauce and cool for about 3 minutes or until the sauce thickens up a bit.

Then put your mixtures in a hot pot or some dish with a lid

and set them out with the lettuce leaves to make your lettuce cups.